Twitter Tips for Social Networking Success

As you know, I love Twitter! The site has been a great tool to use for social networking success. Perhaps the best thing about Twitter (from my perspective) is the fact that you can meet people easily and develop true relationships with people from all over the world. I celebrated this wonderful feature in my recent “Twitter Me Some Love” song!

Even though I have many, many friends on Twitter, it didn’t happen overnight. I had to learn some key Twitter tips to help me achieve my goals and meet some truly wonderful people.

Whether you have a business, or are just trying to connect with a broader audience for other purposes, there are 10 easy tips to consider. Once you know how to use Twitter, you’ll be on the path to success – trust me!

1. Its easy to find people/businesses/organizations on Twitter. Simply go to search.twitter.com and enter a name or keyword (i.e. new age music) and you’ll be able to zero in on your interests. There are other tools you can use to find celebrities and musicians, as well.

2. Talk about more than just yourself. Its a 2-way street on Twitter. You have to interact with other users by messaging them, replying to them and re-tweeting (RT) their posts. This makes it much more fun and enjoyable, anyway!

3. Speaking of re-tweets, this function is wonderful! Where else can you copy someone else’s thought so easily, while giving them credit? You will both be more interesting to your followers, as a result. RTs help build the number of followers because people will be drawn to you as a sociable person who is engaging with other users on Twitter. Either hit the “re-tweet” button, or simply type in RT @_____ (including the Twitter handle of the person you are re-tweeting).

4. Use Twitter in conjunction with – or instead of – regular email. You can send a direct message (known as a DM) to anyone that is following you back. Although you are limited to 140 characters, it can be as efficient and effective as instant messaging.

Twitter success isn't left to the birds!

5. Do not spam! You will sign your own Twitter death warrant if you do so. Spamming is broadly defined as when a user constantly tweets only his or her own links, doesn’t interact with others on the site, posts the same tweets over and over, etc. People will not tolerate a spammer.

6. On the other hand, be sure to spend some time on Twitter every day! I think its important to spread out your visibility on the site throughout the day. You can meet a broader range of people across time zones, work schedules, and more.

7. Do talk about what interests you. This way, your friends and potential followers know what you’re about. For me, I find many other people that enjoy music, inspirational quotes, photography, and nature. Its wonderful to connect with similar souls. If you see a news article that interests you, tweet about that with a link. Same advice for videos, photographs, music files – any digital file can be shared on Twitter.

8. Work at integrating Twitter with your other social media platforms. If you have a blog and there is an article that you think would be of interest to your followers on Twitter, then share it.

9. Have a great Twitter profile! This is not an area for mystery. Use your profile to let people know who you are and what you’re all about. This is how others with similar interests will find you, too.

10. Last but not least, build relationships. When you are using Twitter as a part of your social media marketing efforts, don’t forget that much revolves around forming quality relationships with people who can then hopefully help you build your business.